On February 3 this year, the country’s trading partners will adopt the new system which was signed during the World Customs Organization in Kyoto, Japan in 1974 and revised in 1999.

The new customs procedure which details the system and best practices in the processing of imports and exports will take effect on that date.

The Philippines seems out of step or far behind in adjusting to the Kyoto standards.

In the first place, the country was not a signatory to the original document. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) subsequently adopted the Kyoto Convention system in simplifying and harmonizing customs procedures.

As charter member of ASEAN and AFTA, the country is duty-bound to comply with the new system.

Like other global standards that need application in the domestic front, Philippine customs procedures have not been aligned to the standards set in the Kyoto Convention.

A former top customs official revealed that compliance to some of the new procedures was only accidental. Reform efforts had been, at best, unsustained.

Concerned of possible backlash of non-compliance to the simple rules, the Export Development Council (EDC) has called for a study on how far has customs procedures and practices moved forward to approximate the new standards, where are the gaping holes in compliance and what can be done and done fast to plug those holes.

One of the more immediate impact of failure to comply that was anticipated is the avoiding of international shipping lines to avoid the Philippines as a transshipment point between Asia and the Americas despite its strategic location at the crossroads of the two regions.

A more serious longterm effect is for the country to further become a low priority as product sources by importers due to its backward system of processing goods for trade that will more likely result in shipment delays.

The EDC leaders want to find out why Customs reforms and modernization initiated since the country started opening up the economy had not been sustained and institutionalized.

Initiatives to computerize customs procedures alone have been only partially implemented and in some cases like the green lane for established exporters, already has the software and the people running the system but still rarely used.

EDC also wants to explore how it can use the Kyoto convention as a vehicle in speeding up long-delayed reforms and modernization.

In the soonest possible time, the EDC wants to know the gaps in compliance with the new standards that need to be immediately corrected and those that can wait so that reforms and remedial measures can be taken before the country gets into serious trouble.

The overseer of Philippine exports was said to be trying to get the services of a retired customs official to make a fast study of the customs simplification and modernization problem and recommend quick fixes.